If one wished to be flippant about things, one could apply that standard to countless other crimes.

Maybe the city could force residents to wear bullet proof vests. That would reduce the homicide rate. Or perhaps homeowners should be required to install roller shutters over doors and windows. Or, really, if the last 713,777 Detroiters would just finally move across Eight Mile, Detroit could finally be a city free of crime.

Absurd? Maybe, but consider an idea actually discussed at yesterday’s City Council public safety committee hearing.

“If we didn’t have gas stations and coney islands open after 11 o’clock, if we had an ordinance that required people to get their gas between five in the morning and 11 o’clock…I don’t know if you have a constitutional right to go get gas at two o’clock in the morning,” said City Council President Pro Tem Gary Brown. “You can get it between five in the morning and 11 at night if, in fact, we save lives. If we harden the target and we reduce crime.”

In the former deputy police chief’s opinion, if fewer honest citizens were on the streets overnight, then police would have an easier time identifying “hard targets,” that is to say, the bad guys. Presumably, a gas and coney curfew would also reduce the number of potential victims milling about.

I don’t know if anyone has a constitutional right to 24-hour fuel pumps, but if I worked in the downtown entertainment and hospitality industry (i.e. bartenders, valet parkers, blackjack dealers) I think I’d rather like knowing I could stop for gas after work if my tank was empty. And I’d also resent city leaders suggesting third-shift commuters are part of the problem.

Brown acknowledged that such an ordinance would require further study, but it’s a telling example of how city leaders view the crime problem—if only there were fewer potential crime victims (i.e. citizens), there would be less crime.

This is, of course, patently absurd.

There are plenty of big cities dealing with crime and poverty and budget shortfalls and everything else plaguing Detroit. They don’t force law-abiding citizens to surrender curbside parking or overnight omelets to maintain the peace.